Childhood's End
by chokomagedon
Summary: Mello left Wammy's House orphanage in order to do things on his own way. He seems to be prepared for the thorns that await on his path. Will Matt be prepared too?
1. Day 14

**This is the translation of my fanfic "El fin de la infancia". I'm not bilingual so please feel free to tell me any grammar/vocabulary/whatever mistake you find. Thanks for reading :)**

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**Day 14**

He saw him walking in the door, surly as he sometimes was, and leaving a big wad of bills on the table. The knot at the height of his stomach tightened, and he felt like throwing up, but what came out of his mouth were three simple words:

"You did it".

"So what?", "You didn't have to...", "Leave me alone", could have been the phrases that followed. However, Mello remained silent and locked himself in the bathroom without answering. Outside, lights going off announced the arrival of dawn. Matt had refused to sleep, and doubted he could do that for a while. He wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway. Or maybe it was the fear of seeing in his nightmares sweaty naked bodies, their arrhythmic swinging and grotesque gasps.

Mello had done it. And what for?

"Are you serious? Have you gone mad?", he had opposed desperately.

"Mad? No. Unless you intend to live off air and sleep in the street. At Wammy's House food appeared on the table but now, as you may have noticed, that's over. And money too. How much do you spend daily on cigarettes?", he had asked while taking a black piece of chocolate to his mouth.

"I'll quit smoking if necessary. And I'll get a job so you won't have to..."

"Now you're talking crap. How do you expect to get a job, feed us both, pay rent and pay for what we need to catch Kira? Besides, you're a minor".

_We both are minors_.

"If necessary...".

"No. You need to do what I asked. You concentrate on getting that information. There'll be no time to do what we must if we both work".

_Work_. The word crept from Matt's ear and perpetuated in his mind as an echo as he watched the money on the table. How much would that be? How many men...?

Soon he realized that Mello was taking a lot in the shower. When he came out, clean but no less serious, he took some bills from the wad.

"Here, buy something to eat and a pack of cigarettes, if you want. And chocolate, you know the ones I like. Oh, and I managed to get a loan, so get yourself a decent computer. It's time we begin to investigate seriously".

The thing about the loan soothed and worried him at the same time. It meant that this was not the result of a single night. But it also meant that there would be a repaid, either with money or with more work. He didn't want to imagine the type of person who gave a loan to a fifteen-year-old boy.

"What we know so far is that L was chasing Kira in Japan", began speaking the blonde as he unwrapped a chocolate bar. "He probably had the collaboration of the Japanese police. The best thing to do, in the first place, is to hack their servers to find useful information. You could also do the same with the Interpol and the FBI".

"Sure, piece of cake", he protested, but something told him that neither of them was in the mood for jokes. The truth was that his stomach discomfort gave him no rest. He noticed the slight figure of his apartment-mate silhouetted against the only window in the deplorable apartment they rented, and felt nostalgic, perhaps also somewhat guilty.

"It will take time", he warned him.

"I know".

Matt joined the eyelids for a few seconds, feeling how tiredness strained through his eyes and tantalizingly tickled his brain and every muscle of his body. But he immediately separated them again and stood up to take the money. Mello was already lying in bed, and the wet strands of his golden hair spread out over the pillow. His innocent appearance seemed a cruel irony.

"I'll be right back", he said, and left the apartment with his legs and heart heavy as lead.

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**So... do you like it? If so, please let me know. Translating this took me a lot of time and it's a pain so I wouldn't like to go through this again if nobody is reading xD Thanks!**


	2. Day 0

**I'm really thankful for my two reviews. So here is the second chapter. Don't hesitate to tell me if you find any mistakes.**

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**Day 0**

"Are you leaving?" he asked, holding the weight of the videogame console with one hand and the frame of the door with the other.

Mello turned around to give him an indecipherable look and then continued with what he was doing. He put some of his belongings (those he probably considered more valuable, like that cup that supposedly had belonged to L) in a small bag. Anyone who saw him would have thought that he'd make a short trip, that he'd be gone and back that afternoon in late autumn.

But Matt had heard. He was in the other side of the door when Roger's withered lips pronounced L's Death... Matt's heart had given a little jump, producing a sensation of vertigo in his chest, but his fingers had not stopped their frenetic movements, pressing the buttons on the small console.

_Beep, beep, beep, beep..._

Matt used to follow his roommate through the long corridors of the orphanage. That habit had a lack of intention or objective, just as well as Matt had no interest in the position of the world's most famous detective. It was more of a reflex, an inexplicable inertia acquired by his body. Perhaps, in the same way that Mello secretly lurked Near, a part of Matt considered natural that the number three in the line of succession followed number two. Nobody followed him, but he didn't care. While a portion of his brain focused on passing level after level of some game, another was alert to Mello's words, his gestures, the way he moved...

"Yes. I can't stand this suffocating place full of idiots".

_I can't take being under the shadow of Near anymore_, it seemed to Matt that actually meant. But saying it would have ended in a black eye or a split lip. He had come to testify on a couple of occasions Mello's explosive personality when someone messed with his pride.

"I'll go with you", he heard himself saying. The words had come out of his mouth without thinking.

Mello raised an eyebrow and stopped his activity.

"And why would I want you to come?"

Matt was speechless. For starters, he didn't quite understand why he had proposed that. Lately, Wammy's House bored him to death (perhaps since forever). However, he liked the easy life he had there, being isolated from the world, from the unknown...

"You'll feel alone if you leave on your own. Two heads are better than one. I can give you a hand in whatever you need"

Or perhaps it was hard for him to imagine the orphanage without Mello, forever destined to be a shadow without substance, an imperceptible and aimless ghost.

He felt how his roommate peered at him up and down. In his penetrating gaze he tried to guess everything Mello was thinking: "You don't know how to cook, you don't know how to clean, you have no ability to relate to people, you have no idea how to manage money".

It was true; Matt was only good at videogames and computers, and was terrified of the idea of an independent life.

He was about to turn around and retrace his steps, heading down, when Mello, who had returned his attention to his luggage, replied:

"See you at seven o'clock in the Black Jack cafeteria. Bring all the money you have and some luggage. Don't tell anyone. If you betray me, you'll regret it".

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Black Jack cafeteria was anything but exceptional. Matt had never heard of it, but he had no trouble finding the address on the Internet. It was far enough away from the orphanage so that nobody will look there, and close enough so Matt had time to prepare things. He hadn't faced great dilemmas when preparing his luggage: a backpack with a few changes of clothes, a few personal hygiene items, money, his remaining cigarette packs... And, of course, his video game console. He had hesitated to take one of the laptops from the orphanage, but he was convinced that this would give Roger more reason to chase them. He would manage to get another one.

At six-fifty, Matt sat at a secluded table and ordered a soda. He lit a cigarette and left it lying on the ashtray as he took the console from his backpack. The electronic sounds soon filled the air, until he realized that it was dragging too much attention. He put the device on his knees and looked around: a girl asked for a coffee while underlining a thick book; a mother scolded her child for spilling soda on his clothing; a couple was holding their hands; a group of friends talked in a low voice and then burst out laughing. Nobody paid attention to him. For the vast majority of humanity, Matt was an ordinary teenager and not a gifted orphan who had just left the only home he had known for chasing Kira, the mass murderer.

_What are you doing, Matt? This is a terrible idea_, he said to himself as he looked at the time on his watch: twenty past seven.

Probably Mello had changed his mind about taking Matt with him. Or maybe everything would have been a hoax, and he was now hundreds of miles away, laughing at the image of Matt waiting for him with abandoned puppy expression.

"So you came". A familiar voice interrupted his pessimistic thoughts. Without noticing, Mello had entered the cafe and now he was watching him from the opposite side of the table.

"Sure..."

"Pay the bill and let's go out, it's not a good idea to stay long here"

Matt did as he said, and they went out into the street, where the cold wet London night received them with suspicion. While the redhead pulled another cigarette, the other guy checked a little map of the city.

"For a moment I thought you'd go without me", he decided to confess. He imagined that, now that they only had each other, sincerity would play an important role in their relationship.

Mello must have believed the same thing when he looked at him with a silly smile and said:

"Yes, I also thought the same".

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**I promise next chapter will be more interesting!**


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